The Muggle Movie
by Athena G
Summary: Ron's bored. So Hermione, fed up with his grumbling, persuades him to embark on something he's never done before. Fluff. RWHG.


**Disclaimer:** None of the characters belong to me, but I'll have fun with them anyway. And that's all this one is - a bit of fun.  
**A/N:** Takes place in the 3rd year summer perhaps, although that's not too important. Reviews are appreciated. Cheers! Enjoy...

_**The Muggle Movie**_

When Ron walked into his bedroom on the chilly late August evening in the penultimate week of the Hogwarts School summer holidays he saw Hermione perched on his window ledge with her knees up and a gigantic book resting against them. Her quill was in her right hand and she was jotting notes on a piece of parchment which was resting on the book's open pages.

"Hermione," said Ron, outraged at what he was seeing, "it's the holidays. Can't you stop working for one minute?"

"This is really interesting, Ron," Hermione said defending herself and what she considered to be valuable studying time. "Just because you're bored doesn't mean you have to make every other person in the house find something else to do when they're already perfectly well occupied."

"Go on then," Ron replied scathing, "tell me something interesting."

Hermione looked at him with narrowed eyes, her bushy hair following her head bouncily. However, she smirked before replying: "How's this: you've got a gnome attached to your trousers."

Ron looked down and, just as he did so a little gnome jumped out from the upturned folds of his trousers and leaped onto his bare feet, opening its mouth wide and taking a huge bite.

"Ow!" Ron yelled lifting his foot and smacking the tiny creature with the back of his hand so that it flew across the room and hit a Chudley Cannons poster on the wall on the other side of his room. "Little shit," he grumbled.

"Sneaky little things aren't they," Hermione replied, attempting to stifle her giggles.

"Shut up, Hermione," Ron said, annoyed.

"Well fine," she snapped back, slamming her huge book shut with a bang. "If you're going to be like that then I won't tell you my idea of what we could do today."

Ron looked at her, incensed. "If it involves pouring over musty, old books all day then I rather not know thanks," he said harshly.

"As a matter of fact," she replied, her voice growing louder with almost every word she uttered, "I was going to suggest that –" She faltered and her voice suddenly changed to become close to a whisper as she turned back to the window; "Never mind."

Ron wavered. He could not stand these sorts of situations; he had no idea how to act. Should he remain annoyed without being entirely sure what he was annoyed about, or should he show her sympathy? – her sudden hesitation seemed to suggest the latter.

"Hermione?" Ron said tentatively.

"What?" she replied sharply, looking back at him angrily. She saw him take a step away from her and her features softened. "I was going to say we could go and fetch Harry early. If you're bored," she added, trying to keep the bitterness out of her final words.

"I don't mean I'm bored with you, Hermione," Ron replied, understanding her underlying meaning and becoming exasperated by it. "Of course I'm not. I'm just fed up with being stuck in this place all the time. I mean even school is better than this mind-numbing nothingness."

"Well why don't you try thinking of something to–" she stopped suddenly and looked at Ron thoughtfully. Hermione's tone then took a full turn; she had been obviously irritated not two seconds ago; now, however, excitement bubbled under her skin and the elevated pitch in her voice made this excitement clear to Ron. "I have a great idea of what we could do!"

"What?" he asked her dubiously.

Hermione smiled at him. "You've never seen a muggle movie, have you?"

Ron's eyes widened: "Oh no way, Hermione." He gave an immediate and very forceful refusal to Hermione's idea.

"Come on, Ron," she said, rolling her eyes. "You've never given one a chance. You just turn it down instantly," she continued, annoyed once again. "You might really love it. Please, Ron. I was brought up a muggle, don't forget. If you think about it, you're refusing something that is in my blood."

Hermione was in fact not very serious when she made this remark, but it's seemed to work; the expression of guilt on Ron's face showed her she was successful.

"Fine," he said, irritatingly accepting defeat. "I'll go and see if Dad has that heavy box thing –" he was interrupted.

"Perhaps it'll be best if I go and check myself." Hermione raised her eyebrows in question and Ron stepped aside and made an extravagant bow to let her through into the corridor that would lead her downstairs.

x x x

Half an hour later when Hermione had finished sorting through Mr Weasley's plugs and batteries, numerous telephones and table lamps, an electric fire and several vacuums, she finally found what she was looking for. She took the best looking television and the least damaged VCR and set them up in Ron's living room where, thankfully, Mr Weasely had magicked in a wall socket, she supposed in order to experiment with his muggle equipment. She then went back to search for any film that Mr Weasely may have acquired.

"Right," she said to Ron as she walked back in to the living room. Her sentence died away however when she saw him; he was kneeling up in from of the television and peering at it. After a few moments of waiting, Hermione, smiling at the back of Ron, was about to continue when he suddenly hit it.

"Ron!" she exclaimed. "What – what are you doing?"

Ron turned to face Hermione innocently. "You said it was turned off so I was trying to be helpful and turn it on, but I can't figure out how."

"Well hitting it isn't going to get you anywhere," Hermione said. "You might break it."

"Well how was I to know that?" he said frustrated. "There are no instructions and I looked and there's nothing marked 'on' on it anywhere. I didn't want to press any of the buttons incase I broke it."

Hermione chuckled at the irony of Ron's statement. "There's no instructions because it's an old TV," she informed him. "And the big button is the 'on' and the 'off' switch."

"Switch?" Ron said inquiringly.

"Yes," said Hermione. "You switch TVs on and off. That's what it's called."

"Oh," Ron replied. "I don't know much about muggles considering my Dad's in the department, do I?" he said sheepishly.

Hermione raised one eyebrow in what Ron recognised as a very McGonagall-like manner, and held out several items, all of a similar size and shape of a standard book.

"What are those?" Ron asked curiously.

"Your dad's films," Hermione answered. Ignoring Ron's confused look she continued; "Ok, let's see what we've got."

There were four films in all, and Hermione flipped through them quickly: "Nope," she said. "Definitely not. No. I suppose this one will have to do." She had discarded _Lawrence of Arabia_, _All About Eve_ and _Spartacus_, all good films in themselves but ones which she thought Ron would not appreciated when watching a film for the first time. She therefore settled on the final and most recent film of the bunch, _The Green Mile_.

Hermione moved over to the television and set up the film. Before she started it however, she quickly dashed to the kitchen. Appearing five minutes later, Ron saw she had brought with her some pumpkin juice, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and a muggle snack Hermione told him was called 'popcorn'. She arranged the food on a table and pulled it in front of the sofa where Ron was sitting. She pressed 'play'on the VCR, put out the candlelight and sat down next to Ron, who already had the bowl of Every Flavour Beans on his knee and was munching his way through them.

"Try the popcorn," she told him.

In the light from the television she saw Ron look at the bowl suspiciously; he didn't move.

"Go one, Ron," she urged. "It's really nice – and sweet – and warm," she added, hoping to persuade him with each adjective.

She reached for the bowl and pulled it onto her own lap. Taking one piece she held it a few centimetres away from his mouth. Hermione chuckled as she saw him squeeze his lips together as tightly as he could and she watched them as they turned white.

"Suit yourself," she said, and popped the piece of popcorn into her mouth.

"Bloody hell!" Ron exclaimed.

"What?" Hermione said, jumping.

"What's happening?" he asked, pointing at the television screen.

"This is what a film is, Ron," she replied amused. "It's moving pictures, like photos in the magical world but with sound and a story and people pretending to be characters in the story. They usually last for about two hours."

"Oh," Ron replied, understanding a little more now that Hermione had related it to something he actually knew about. "So these are real people pretending to be other people and the whole thing is fiction?"

"That's right," said Hermione, excited that Ron now seemed to be interested.

Consequently, Hermione then had to explain about adverts and trailers as there were several before the film; then it began. Throughout the beginning of the film, she had to clarify a few things in order to help Ron understand it more clearly, such as the electric chair and the unfortunate medical condition of Paul Edgecomb but he seemed to enjoy it and he merrily sipped his pumpkin juice and ate the Every Flavour Beans almost constantly. Hermione, who had seen the film several times, began to feel sleepy after a while and her eyes started to droop.

She awoke suddenly when she heard an exclamation of, "No!"

"Wha- what?" she said sleepily.

"He can't die." Ron was scandalized; to Hermione's surprise the film was already nearing its end and John Coffey had just been executed.

"Oh," she replied sensitively, and found herself finding Ron's distress very endearing. She then began to notice several changes to the room that must have occurred in her sleep. All of the popcorn in the bowl on her lap had vanished, as had the Beans which was rather less surprising, and she was sitting a lot closer to Ron than she thought she had been. However, neither of these was as surprising as the arm she could now feel around her shoulders. She felt herself tense automatically but she pushed the instinctive reaction aside and relaxed into Ron's side, resting her head in the dip under his collarbone.

"I liked him too," Hermione said comfortingly to Ron, as he appeared to be almost on the verge of tears. They remained in silence watching the rest of the film. Towards the end, Hermione felt Ron's hand that was around her shoulders move to her hair and begin to gently play with it, combing it with his fingers and twisting the strands together; her stomach quivered when Ron's thumb accidentally brushed her neck.

After the final minutes of the film the screen went black for a few seconds and the end credits started to play. Hermione and Ron didn't move as they sat comfortably and listened to the music, watching but not reading the names of the people involved in the film moving up the screen and disappearing at the top.

"Did you like it?" Hermione quietly asked Ron after a few minutes.

"It was bloody brilliant," Ron said earnestly. "I can't believe I've never seen a muggle film before."

Hermione giggled; "Oh dear," she said. "Have I started you off on an obsession to rival the Chuddy Canyons?"

Ron looked down to the top her head which was still resting on his chest. "Chudley Cannons!" he said exasperatedly. "And yes, maybe you have."

Hermione twisted her neck round to look up at him. She was a lot closer than she thought and as her eyes found his face, the words she was about to say floated out of her mind like feathers in a breeze. Ron slowly moved his head down to hers. His brow was furrowed in a look that suggested uncertainty. Hermione lifted her head off Ron's chest and unknowingly supplied him with reassurance.

The lips met tentatively at first, then Hermione felt Ron's hand move to her neck. His fingers wrapped around the back and his thumb stroked her jaw line as he pulled her more firmly to him. Hermione sighed softly and their kiss deepened. Ron felt her move slightly and she wrapped her arms around his neck pulling him sideways and then over her as she fell slowly back onto the sofa.

Their kiss became more fervent now as each felt the weight of the other's body. Ron broke away and trailed kisses down Hermione's neck. He was not away for long however, and she soon felt his lips forcefully collide with hers once again. She matched his intensity with her own eagerness and she heard Ron groan deeply as she shifted her body under him, the friction arousing both of them.

"Why is it so dark in here?"

There was a loud thump as Molly Weasley flicked the her wand at the candles, lighting them. Ron sat up on the floor a little breathless and rubbing his shoulder.

"We were watching a muggle film, Mum," he replied a little curtly to Mrs Weasley.

"It just finished," Hermione added, lifting herself from her lying position on the Weasley's sofa.

"Alright, Mum, we've decided." Fred and George came bouncing into the room. "We'll give you all the Tooth Ticklers," Fred said.

"If you let us go down Knockturn Alley for half an hour," George continued.

"Certainly not!" cried Mrs. Weasley. "I will take all your Tooth Ticklers though, or I'll be forced to spend the entire day by your side when we go to Diagon Alley."

"Oh, come on, Mum," Fred whined. "Don't you trust us?" he said with mock innocence.

"This could go on for a while," Ron said to Hermione.

She smiled at him. "It's quite late, I should get to bed anyway," she replied. "Night, Ron."

"Night," he said, thankful that his little kiss on her lips went unseen by both Fred and George. Ron watched her walk out of the room and turned back to say goodnight to his mother. As he turned he saw her looking at him with a deliberate smile. All he could do was smile back and walk quietly out of the room, his large grin going unnoticed by his exuberant brothers.

END


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